Table of Contents:-- Introduction-- Resources-- What To Grind-- Droids-- Making Money As an Artisan-- Should I Master Artisan

Introduction:Welcome to my guide, How To Grind Artisan! In this guide you will learn what to make to quickly grind this profession, and also what to do to make the most money the fastest so that you can kick start your elite profession.

Resources:The biggest draw back of this profession and also it's greatest strength is the fact that you have to obtain resources in order to make anything in the game. The fact that every artisan profession relies on resources ensures that mastering your elite profession will take time and money. The fastest way to get enough resources and cash is to master the surveying skill tree. This way you can spend less time hunting for small pockets of resources and easily locate the large pockets. Since, honestly, surveying is boring I recommend macroing it, and you can probably master it in a night, you will want to get friendly with a Master Artisan so you don't have to spend money on training. Here is a link with information on how to maco resource harvesting:

http://www.bloodfin.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=28

After obtaining Survey IV you are now in a position to get harvesters setup that will pull the majority of the resources you need for you. I recommended going to your local bazaar and buying a Wind Machine and two Mineral Extractors. Make sure that these have a base extraction rate of 5, that way you maximize the amount of resources that this type of harvester can pull.

I also recommended selling all the resources that you make, except for Wind energy. That way you always have energy and you can keep obtaining more resources. As you start making a profit start buying more mineral extractors, and just keep selling. You will want to work up to at least 2 Heavy Mineral Extractors (base extraction rate of 15) and a fusion generator. The heavy extractors will allow you to get about 15,000 units of resources per day (this is an average of what mine have been able to pull in a 24 hour period), and the fusion generator can probably power about 18 mineral extractors. This way you can stockpile and sell resources. You will want to learn what resources you will need for your elite profession, that way you don't have to spend days waiting for enough resources to grind just one skill. A recommendation for any elite skill on the engineering branch - buy a fusion generator (make this a priority), three heavy mineral extractor, one deep crust extractor, and one gas extractor (largest one, I can't remember it's name). For the most part Inert Gas, Steel, and Inert Petrochemicals are going to be what you need the most. The rest you can just buy off the bazaar.

You will need to check the local bazaar and see what they usually sell at since most area's are different, on Kauri server I was able to sell Steel in Anchorhead for 3cpu and in Theed I can only sell for 1.5cpu. This is were you will need to make a judgement on where you want to sell and where things will sell the best. I recommended asking a master artisan for more assistance.

When I was grinding resources, I bought 4 Wind Machines and 6 Mineral Extractors and made 200,000 credits in 4 days. You just have to really pay attention to the market.

One last thought, most elite professions on the engineering branch require 600,000+ resources to complete, if you go to swgcraft.com you can find out exactly how many resources each item uses, also visit the starwarsgalaxies.com forums for your elite profession to learn more.

What To Grind:I grinded mineral survey devices all the way to Engineering IV. It was rather easy, once I did that I grinded wind machines, they give about 450xp, and I grinded both Droid Engineer and Architect on that in about 2 hours total. If you want to Macro grind, here is a macro that has proved most valuable:

Droids:I recommended buying a droid that has the crafting station for your elite profession. If you intend to master many artisan elite professions, you can get a R2 droid with all the crafting stations available and you can make anything you want (with experimentation) away from your home terminal.

The structure maintance droids are very nice, they can pay any maintance on any harvester, as long as you an admin on that harvester. The only bad this is these guys cannot restart a stopped harvester and cannot pay power. This is something I recommended getting if you have off world harvesters or you dont have the time to travel to all your harvesters.

Making Money As an Artisan:This should be relatively easy, since everything an Artisan makes (well almost everything except for those bird cages) are useful to someone. Master Artisan are the only ones that can make vehicles and certaint components for other elite artisan professions, and Artisans with survey are the only ones out there selling resources, you can also selling basic Harvesters if you have Engineering IV. I recommended asking around to Master Artisans on your server and see what they sell, a lot of people can sell weapon powerups, I never been able to, but I know people that make pretty good money doing it. Just ask around you would be supprised at what you find out other people are doing.

Should I Master Artisan:This is something that gets asked a LOT, I recommend if you are mastering ONE elite artisan profession to master Artisan, if you are doing TWO elite artisan professions you won't have enough skill points for anything else and this can be someone restrictive. Its really a preference issue, if you want to make components for your elite profession that only Master Artisans can make then master this profession, otherwise you can buy the items from someone else. Most people I have talked to opted to not master artisan.

Wrapping Up:Thanks for reading my article on the Artisan profession, I wrote this article out of lack of a cohesive document that helps newbies define a path through this profession. If you have any suggestions or like to point out a mistake I made, please send an email to Jarek on the Kauri server, I belive you can send a cross server email by typing in Kauri.Jarek

If you like, I can take your framework, post it under my name (which I can edit with) and we can make it the foundation of a new FAQ (which we've needed for some time). I'll give you credit, of course.

I took a survey mission. It asked me to get a metal that could be used for making shiney flakes on a sign. I found copper, but I have not been able to figure out what the heck they actually want. The box in the mission window has a symbol that I cannot match to any that show up in my Survey Tool window. So, how does one actually perform a survey mission successfully?

JarrekConnel, in answer to your question a survey missions just requires you to go to a spot that has a minimum percentage of what they want. For instance, if they ask for 69 efficiency of copper, you will need to find a spot about 1025 meters away that has at least 69% effeciency of copper, soon as you run the survey device you get your reward.

JarrekConell wrote:I might have been too close, because the quality was 89%. Thanks!

In that case, sample the copper to see if it's any good. If it has a nice OQ and/or CD, then rename the Resource Survey waypoint as 89% Shiny Platinite Copper (or whatever) so you won't lose it the next you survey for something. You've found a nice mining spot, even if it doesn't fit the mission requirements.

Tortia Quinn -- Dabbler Ordinaire"When I see a creature I know what it is and can do; a durni is a durni is a durni.I don't have to take a second closer look to make sure it's not a krayt dragonslumming in a bunny suit!"Naboo, Corbantis